The disc transfer mechanism described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-191361 has a tray that moves in the horizontal direction between a disc installation and removal position at which a disc has been drawn out from the apparatus and a position at which the disc has been drawn into the apparatus body; and a disc holder provided on the tray and on which the disc is placed.
The apparatus body also includes a turntable that rotationally drives the disc, a damper that sandwiches the disc with the turntable, an optical pickup, and a traverse mechanism for moving the optical pickup in the radial direction of the disc.
The tray and the disc holder have such a relation as to be configured so that the tray moves in the horizontal direction to lead the central hole of the disc placed on the disc holder to a position immediately before the turntable, and so that when the tray further moves in the same direction toward the internal end, the disc holder starts descending toward the turntable and loads the disc on the turntable provided on a fixed side so that the disc is sandwiched by the turntable and the clamper.
In such a disc transfer mechanism, the disc holder configured on the tray makes the structure complicated and reduces the reliability of the disc installation and removal.